Mike Bibby touched down on the West Coast the same year that Vince Carter and Air Canada was taking off in Toronto. He was drafted three spots ahead of Prince Vince at the 1998 NBA draft in Vancouver.

While Carter, aided by solid ownership, helped the Toronto Raptors grow to become a viable franchise, Bibby suffered through three years of steady rain and constant losing in Van City — aided by some horrible draft decisions — before the Grizzlies were sold and shipped to Memphis.

Because of that, Bibby’s first visit to Calgary involved him politely reminiscing about his experience in Vancouver and the eventual split with the NBA, which came after just six seasons.

“People loved basketball in Vancouver, but it’s tough to go watch anything when you’re losing and we were losing a lot,” he said.

“I think they didn’t give Vancouver enough time with the team.”

Bibby is in Calgary to take part in the BMO All-Star Kidsfest at the Saddletowne YMCA on Friday evening, and the Bell NBA All-Star Challenge, which takes place Saturday at the University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson Gymnasium.

The all-star challenge is open to anyone 14-and-over who wants to test their shooting, skills and dunking ability against the city’s other hot shots.

The competition’s pre-qualifier begins Saturday at noon at the U of C, with the winners returning to take part in a final challenge in the evening during halftime of a Dinos men’s basketball game. Winners earn a trip to the 2016 NBA All-Star game in Toronto where they will compete for the national title.

While the Grizzlies themselves may not have been successful in Vancouver, the franchise and coinciding stardom of Victoria’s Steve Nash, has been credited with helping grow the game at a grassroots level in Western Canada.

“The Grizzlies did a lot for basketball in Western Canada,” said Calgary Minor Basketball Association technical director Mike Shaw, who was living in Victoria at the time. “They ran a lot of programs just like what the NBA is doing this weekend here. Those types of programs were run year-round with the Grizzlies.”

The sport has grown tremendously in Calgary in recent years as well, but there could be more growth, Shaw said, if more facilities are added.

“What we’re facing is a lack of gym time on weeknights,” he said. “Even though we have grown it has limited our growth. We actually are having to turn players away because we don’t have enough practice time weeknights. This is what a lot of associations are facing across the city.”

Bibby has seen a big difference in the game in Canada since he was in Vancouver.

“It’s been 16, 17 years since I was in Vancouver and it definitely has grown a lot,” he said.

“Kids are getting better. A lot of the top kids in high school come from Canada. You’ve got (Andrew) Wiggins and (Anthony) Bennett. You could go down the line. Steve Nash of course.

“It’s good to see.”

Bibby spends a lot of his time now working with players the same age as those who will be rocking the rims at Jack Simpson today. Retired from the NBA since 2012, he now coaches at his former high school in Phoenix, where his son Mike Bibby, Jr. is a top national prospect.

Bibby’s NBA career spanned 14 seasons as a guard and 1,001 regular season games. The first 214 of those contests were spent in a Grizzlies uniform and involved him taking part in 161 losses. He was traded to the Sacramento Kings shortly after the team moved to Memphis following the 2000-01 season following a sixth straight losing season.

By comparison the Raptors won 47 games in 2000-01 and reached the conference semifinals.

“Toronto was more exciting,” Bibby said. “We had a lot of guys who played below the rim. Big Country Reeves didn’t get off the ground. Shareef Abbur-Rahim didn’t get off the ground and I certainly didn’t get off the ground. We didn’t have any high flyers.

“They had Vince Carter, T-Mac (Tracy McGrady) and were exciting. We had old-school players in Vancouver. Coming in you want to see something exciting and I don’t think we were very exciting.”

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